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The fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in greens provide healthy nutrients your body needs to run well. They may help reduce the risk of certain cancers, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and being overweight. They also contribute to healthy eyes and bones, and may even lengthen life expectancy. Why then, do we not eat more of these super foods?

With busy schedules and competing demands, good nutrition is often the first thing to fall by the wayside. But there is something you can do about it. With a little planning and creative kitchen time, and by selecting the right supplements, you can meet your body’s need for green.

Tips for getting your greens

Stay stocked: To get more greens into your diet, it’s essential that they’re available when hunger strikes. Many supermarkets offer prewashed and cut vegetables that shorten prep time and help you use what you buy.

Get greens on the go: Make sure to buy veggies that are easy to take along for snacking. Good picks are peppers, broccoli florets, sugar snap peas, and cucumbers.

Plan ahead: Make a menu for the week, then shop for the items you’ll need. Having a meal in mind will save you money and make you less likely to reach for the take-out menu.

Get everyone involved: Have kids help out with meal planning. Children involved with food preparation are much more likely to eat their fruits and veggies.

Consider a supplement: When your diet is light on vegetables, add a green supplement to round it out.

How to choose a super green supplement

Here’s a look at some of the more common ingredients in greens supplements and their uses. Many of them can be mixed in juice or a smoothie to make them more appealing. As when starting any new supplement, speak with your doctor first.

Spirulina: A type of blue-green algae, spirulina boasts a multitude of easy-to-absorb nutrients, including carotenoids, essential fatty acids, and predigested protein. Spirulina enhances normal intestinal flora while inhibiting the overgrowth of harmful bacteria and yeasts. It is also said to strengthen connective tissue, act as an anti-inflammatory, decrease cholesterol levels, and possibly inhibit cancer cell formation.

Spirulina is a popular green for athletic function and weight loss, and to help remedy malnutrition.

Chlorella: This type of algae requires extra processing to break the cell wall and render it more digestible. Chlorella has immune-stimulating, anticancer, blood pressure-lowering, and wound-healing properties. It may also help bind heavy metals and remove them from the body.

Chlorella is a popular green for supporting the body’s defenses against chronic fatigue, Candida overgrowth, and blood sugar dysregulation.

Wheat grass and barley grass: The tender young greens from both of these cereal grasses are protein-rich—20% by volume. They’re also full of digestive enzymes, antioxidants that help slow cellular deterioration and quell inflammation, and compounds that help strengthen connective tissue and lower cholesterol levels. People who are allergic to wheat and related grains are almost never allergic to them in their grass form, and many supplements containing wheat and barley grass are labeled “gluten-free.”

Wheat and barley grass are popular greens as a general vitamin/mineral supplement, as well as for supporting immunity and slowing the aging process.

Alfalfa: Rich in vitamins, minerals, and even protein, alfalfa forms the backbone of many greens formulations. This member of the legume family is a folk remedy for arthritis, chronic sore throat, gas pain, menopausal symptoms, and peptic ulcers.

Alfalfa should not be used by pregnant women and may also interact with anti-clotting medications such as warfarin.

“If someone is looking for a high quality once-a-day vitamin, I recommend a greens formula instead, as I feel the nutrients found in greens are far easier for the body to use and they tend to provide a tangible improvement in energy and vitality,” says Maria Boorman, a physician specializing in nutritional medicine. Many greens supplements also contain fruit and vegetable concentrates, probiotics, antioxidants like green tea extract and acerola cherry, and energy-boosting herbs such as ginseng. If you try to eat organic, look for organic supplements as well.

Kimberly Beauchamp, ND, received her doctoral degree from Bastyr University, the nation’s premier academic institution for science-based natural medicine. She co-founded South County Naturopaths in Wakefield, RI, where she practiced whole family care with an emphasis on nutritional counseling, herbal medicine, detoxification, and food allergy identification and treatment. Her blog, Eat Happy, helps take the drama out of healthy eating with real food recipes and nutrition news that you can use. Dr. Beauchamp is a regular contributor to Healthnotes Newswire.

Aging Gracefully: Nutrition for “Young” Seniors

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Many of us are tuned into the importance of good nutrition during childhood, adolescence, and the reproductive years. We can believe that key nutrients for people 70 years old and up may limit complications from high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and other health conditions that may come with age. But what about younger seniors—people 50 to 69 years old?

Between childcare and getting the kids through school, helping aging parents, managing a career, and keeping a household running, the 50 to 69 year old set often ends up putting everyone else’s needs before their own. Achieving optimal nutrition for your age can help you gain the energy your busy life demands and lay the foundations for continued health on into the future.

Nutrient knowledge

To ensure the body is nourished in a way that supports short- and long-term health goals, we need to pay attention to key nutrients as we age. This includes:

Vitamin D. Last fall, the 14-member expert committee assembled by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies tripled the recommended intake for vitamin D from 200 IU/day to 600 IU/day for all people between the ages of 1 and 70 years old.

Action: Get vitamin D from fortified foods and fatty cold-water fish, such as salmon. Many people come up short, especially those living in northern climes, so ask your doctor or dietitian if you should try a vitamin D supplement. Daily intakes of up to 4,000 IU of vitamin D per day may be considered safe.

Action: Eat plenty of green leafy vegetables to up your K quotient. Check to see if your multivitamin contains vitamin K and if it doesn’t consider switching to one that does, or add a separate vitamin K supplement.

Calcium: Calcium is important for bone health and more but, believe it or not, some of us may get too much of this nutrient. The safe upper limit for calcium intake for adults 51 years old and up is 2,000 mg per day, which can easily be exceeded if you eat calcium-fortified foods and take a calcium supplement.

Action: Tally up all sources of calcium in a typical day of eating. Be sure to include calcium-fortified foods, such as orange juice and cereals, in your calculation. Try to to reach the RDA (daily) of 1,000 mg for men and 1,200 mg for women. Add a calcium supplement if diet alone doesn’t get you there.

Iron: Adults over 50 do not need as much iron as children and young women. As with calcium, it is possible to get too much iron.

Action: Get your iron fix from lean meats and iron-rich plant foods, such as green leafy vegetables, beans and peas, dried apricots and raisins, and nuts and seeds. If you take a multivitamin, choose one that is iron-free unless your doctor has diagnosed deficiency.

Medication management 101

Make a list of all of your dietary supplements and over-the-counter and prescription medications. Ask your doctor or dietitian to advise you about interactions that may affect how your body absorbs and uses key nutrients. A few examples include:

Action: Ask if you should take extra bone-strengthening nutrients, including calcium, magnesium, and vitamins D and K.

Cholesterol medications known as statins, which can decrease blood levels of coenzyme Q10. Lower CoQ10 blood levels may increase risk of complications from statins, such as muscle aches.

Action: Ask if a CoQ10 supplement is something you need to ensure optimal health while taking a statin.

Many other medications and supplements can interfere with nutrients in the body, so make your list comprehensive, and check back with your doctor anytime you add in something new.

Suzanne Dixon, MPH, MS, RD, an author, speaker, and internationally recognized expert in chronic disease prevention, epidemiology, and nutrition, has taught medical, nursing, public health, and alternative medicine coursework. She has delivered over 150 invited lectures to health professionals and consumers and is the creator of a nutrition website acclaimed by the New York Times and Time magazine. Suzanne received her training in epidemiology and nutrition at the University of Michigan, School of Public Health at Ann Arbor.